Stronger
by Stefan-sama
Summary: Yang meets his final opponent in the Third Street Fighter Tournament- the one person he's chased after his entire life.


**Happy October (and to anyone reading this later than that, you're late to the party)! Here's my first piece of the school year. I had a few different motivations to write this one. First off, my internet's been pretty wonky lately, so I've been playing a lot of Third Strike in the downtime. Second, it's been a month since my last piece, which is too long. On top of that, this oneshot was good experimental practice for a lot of things that I need to work on in my writing (well, more so that other things). The two main components here are an extended fight scene and a longer conversation about a singular emotional topic, both of which anyone who's read even one of my stories will tell you I stink at to high heaven. Inferiority and jealousy are also two topics I rarely write about, which is odd since they're so central to me. It was nice to get some things off my chest. Anyway, to repeat myself, this was mostly experimental, and will probably read as such. Don't expect too much.**

**Stronger**

From his seat under a tin outcropping, Yang rested against an abandoned noodle house far beyond repair, listening to the ambient noise of the heart of Hong Kong. The usual bustle was somewhat present, but distant in the torrent of rain. He waited, and waited.

Some time later, he could make a splashing distinct from the crying gray sky above. Footsteps in the puddles of the uneven streets, he gathered. The resolute rhythm of the steps, a laid-back but firm march, was a specific beat he knew to be peculiar to only one person. A dark shadow flickered in the distance, finally coming to a rest in front of Yang in the form of a pair of jet-black sneakers. Again, he didn't need to look up to know who they belonged to. He instead kept his gaze forward, and declined to acknowledge his brother.

"I'd been hoping for someone else named Lee Yang," Yun said awkwardly.

Yang waited another moment before replying quietly. "…Sorry to disappoint."

"Oi, oi." Grunting, Yun squatted down, reaching up to adjust his treasured cap so that he could look directly at his brother. "What's gotten into you all of a sudden? Something happen over the month?"

Yang shook his head, brushing aside Yun's hand with his own. "No, nothing new. Just the same thing, over and over again. Just like always," he muttered.

Clueless as ever, Yun cocked his head. "What's up?"

"…You've always been like this. So much better than me you don't even know it."

"What, this again?" Yun reached under his cap and ran his fingers through his braided hair. "Yang, you're my brother, and the strongest person I know."

"But you're still stronger than I am." Yang stood and turned his back to Yun, his voice hollow as he stared down at the concrete. "Always. You've always been better than me, in everything we've done. Even now, with this tournament, I've had to fight people around the world, and every last one had the same thing to say- 'Wow, you're almost as strong as your brother.' There's not a single place in the world that I can go without someone comparing me to you, is there?"

Yang felt a hand on his shoulder, a firm, tense grip that contrasted with his brother's slow, wary tone. "Yang-"

"Don't bother."

With this, Yang felt the grip intensify, and he found himself being spun around angrily to face his brother. Yun held him with both arms and shook Yang powerfully. "What the hell is wrong with you?! Get it together! It doesn't matter which of us is stronger. If we're going to protect this town, we need to be strong together, both of us."

Yang shook himself free, throwing his arm out to the side. "No one needs me! No one needs second place! The white dragon, the pride and joy of Hong Kong, the favorite son- the strongest one can do everything perfectly by himself!" he snarled.

Yun was visibly taken aback by this, but quickly shifted gears back into a furious rage. "Stop acting like a little bitch! This is one big waste of time! It doesn't matter who's stronger. Maybe I am, but so what? If it bothers you, hurry up and get better than me!"

"I've tried. For years I've tried and tried, only to come in second for the umpteenth time, and watch you blow past me."

Yun opened his mouth to speak again, but barely dodged a spear-hand aimed right at his solar plexus, flipping to the side as Yang's strike tore through the tail of his shirt. "Now what the hell are you doing?!" he yelled, assuming a fighting stance.

Cracking his knuckles, Yang mirrored his brother's pose. "You're my opponent. What did you think we'd be doing?!" he cried as he launched into a flurry of left-handed jabs. Yun managed to parry each one, his hands shifting in and out of sight in their speed as they grabbed and blocked. Desperate, Yang intensified his assault, throwing his strikes even faster. "I won't be second to you again!"

Yun blocked a last strike, then spun down for a sweep that Yang jumped over, flipping backwards. The brothers stared each other down angrily through the mist, their panting punctuating the noise of the torrent. "I already told you, it doesn't matter how we compare! Why do you care about that so much?" Yun asked.

"…Hoimei…" Yang muttered, quieter than a feather falling to the ground and inaudible above the rain. "Even she- perfect you…" He clenched his fists in an effort to stop a tear from inching down his cheek. "You don't even know, do you?!" he screamed, aiming a berserk punch at his brother's head.

Ducking under effortlessly, Yun countered with twin punches that Yang caught in midair. Their hands locked in struggle above their heads, the two pushed against each other, their feet sliding back on the soaked pavement. "What are you talking about?" Yun asked through gritted teeth.

"I'll show you," Yang growled, ignoring the question. "I'll show you just how far I've come these last few weeks. All my life you've been a wall looming in front of me. You've always gone ahead without ever looking back- now I'll show you just who you've neglected!"

"Okay then," Yun said, nearly grinning sadistically as he made a final push, Yang stumbling back. "I've got no choice, and I've had enough of your whining. You think I'm a wall? I'll give you a wall. This is the wall that will always block your progress!" Yang followed his brother as the older twin leapt into the air, high above the glowing neon of the Hong Kong night, both with the same vicious kick.

The two landed simultaneously, each crashing to the cold, wet earth with a fresh bruise on their chest. Yun was the first to recover, however shakily, and sprang toward his struggling brother. Coughing from the ground and still reeling, Yang managed to raise his aching head, only to have a fist collide with his face. Yang was sent flying, spinning around twice and crashing into a pile of cardboard boxes marked for disposal. "Zesshou _Hohou!_" Yun smirked, spinning his cap around on his finger tauntingly.

Before Yun could even blink, Yang had appeared right in front of him, his hands clenched at his sides to strike, too close for a counter. "Eat this!" Yang yelled, slashing across his brother's body viciously five times in rapid succession. "_Torou Zan!_" Such was his lightning speed that yellow afterimages followed in his trail, and the air flashed with a blue vacuum where he swiped. Yun fell.

"Motherfucker!" Yun spat, wiping at the bloody cut he'd received across his jaw from his hunched position on the ground. Yang intercepted another _Zesshou Hohou_, sidestepping the punch with his own circular chop- years of taking the jumping punches to the gut had taught him the best way to parry them.

"_Byakko Soushoda!_" Dashing in close again while Yun reeled, Yang elbowed Yun's stomach, twisted into a straight lunge, and applied his hands to his brother's torso, pushing forcefully and expertly with his fingers and thumbs on a secret formation of pressure points. "And… _Senkyutai!_" As Yun crumpled from the power of the press, Yang rolled on the ground into a kick that struck up to both the chest and jawd, forcing Yun back.

Yun had been put off balance, but spun around, turning the fall into an elbow strike. Yang caught the elbow with one hand and delivered three quick taps to Yun's exposed torso, but his focus on attack left him open to a knee to the gut. Capitalizing on the stunning effect, Yun pressed his advantage and went for a low kick, then swiftly turned up into a powerful haymaker.

Before Yang even had the chance to fall, Yun rotated around into double chop that turned into a shoulder blow. Yang's eyes widened as he saw the fist coming into his stomach that heralded Yun's signature move. "_You-Hou!_" Yun cried as his punch nearly tore through Yang's soaked body, sending his twin careening into the air. "You didn't really think you could win, did you?!" he yelled confidently as he leapt up to follow.

Grimacing in pain as he spun, Yang managed to roll around in midair and whipped into a 360, his heel chopping into Yun's neck as he used the hook kick's momentum to nail Yun with his other leg. "It's not a matter of thinking!" Yang cried as his brother wrestled with himself to regain his orientation. "I will win!" He rolled in the air and flew, delivering a backbreaking downward side kick that accelerated Yun into a heap that crashed violently into the ground.

Even as Yun struggled to push himself up, Yang dropped straight down with a knee to the stomach, driving Yun deeper into the pavement with a pained scream. Wildly, Yang rained down a flurry of indiscriminate knife-hand strikes on his brother's body, but was knocked back by a heavy side kick as Yun forced himself to stand.

"I'll end this!" Yun roared, bringing his arms around from a cross to his sides with a flash of lightning. "_Gen'ei Jin!_" Time slowed to a crawl; Yun could clearly track every drop of rain as it fell, and Yang seemed to move as quickly as a turtle. Even as he leapt forward, though, he knew from the pair's years of training together that his advantage would not last long.

"No! You will not underestimate me again! _Sei'ei Enbu!_" With his own burst of light, Yang brought his leg up and cocked his arms, now moving so fast that every move he made was followed by a trail of afterimages.

His inhuman acceleration catching Yun off-guard, Yang threw three roundhouses to his brother's face with the same leg where he might only have been able to kick once. As Yun fell, though, his slowed perception allowed him a reverse sweep, knocking Yang's feet out from under him.

Springing up as quickly as he fell, Yang went for a low knife-edge slash that he chained into another _Torou Zan_, slashing forward wildly. The first was parried, as was the second, but each successive attack cut deeper and deeper until Yun saw the ninth and final slash, intercepting it. He reached for a straight punch, but Yang had already ducked under, aiming up with a palm strike that hit only thin air. Yun grabbed his younger twin's shoulders and vaulted behind in an attempt to duplicate the press of pressure points that had been used on him earlier, but Yang was still too fast and rolled out of the way.

Yun threw a crescent kick. Yang ducked under. Yang fired a crane strike. Yun whipped to the side.

The brothers got in close, each strike blocked for the next, flowing, twisting, turning around in a circle, every impact a sonic boom that rang in succession through the night. Neither one, despite the rapidity of their moves, could find even a single opening in the other's defenses.

They finally sprang away from each other, splashing down hard on opposite sides of the alley. Exhausted to the verge of collapsing, they stared each other down silently with haggard breathing and hateful eyes. A tense silence hung in the air as neither one moved.

"This… This is… This is it!" Yun breathed, inching back into a fighting stance, knees bent forward and hands outstretched. "I'm going to knock some sense back into you!" He pulled his fists back to his sides in preparation of one final pass. _"Byakko Soushoda!_"

Bruised and bloodied, Yang could feel the last of his energy dissipating. _Move…Move!_ His limp arm refused to obey him, dangling uselessly from his shoulder. _No! Move!_ His brother charged forward.

"No! I won't lose! Not ever again! Move!" screamed Yang, emptying his mind of everything, forcing his body to shift. "This is one hundred and twenty percent of my power! This is the power you've never seen! This is my power, and I will not lose! _Raishin Mahhaken!_"

Yang felt his arm stabbing forward, piercing and freezing, and he passed by in a series of instantaneous blows. He took a step, stumbling, and fell to the ground, slipping in a puddle and crashing next to his brother's body, his limbs splayed out uselessly.

The pavement under him was cold with rainwater, and each of the droplets that charged from the heavens stung his beaten body, even getting in his eyes and nose and running about, but he was unable to do anything about either in his condition. From the rough, stilted coughing and sniffling that came from next to him, he could tell that Yun was having much the same experience. The brothers laid there for what seemed like hours, drained of their reserves and reveling in their exhaustion.

Yun finally mustered up the energy to speak up. "Huff… Are you… Happy now?" his brother's voice asked. "You beat me."

"No… I didn't beat you, we both fell," Yang replied. "And I'm not happy either. But I can deal with it."

"Good. A tie. We're equal then. I like it that way."

They breathed quietly in the rain for a few more minutes. Yang tried opening and closing his left hand; it twitched slightly, and he winced. His right one obeyed slowly at least, however painfully. He waited and waited for the catharsis he'd been expecting for finally matching his brother's strength, but if it did come, he didn't notice it.

Yun spoke up again, his voice now quick and blunt. Yang could picture his brother's familiar quizzical scowl, one eyebrow furrowed higher than the other. "What is that? '_Raishin Mahhaken_?' What is that? What even is that?"

"I beat you with it, shut up."

"Tied."

"Yeah."

Yang could hear Yun getting to his feet. There was a shuffling against the concrete, then an audible pop- "Nope!" Yun said, collapsing back down in defeat. After resting for another minute, he tried again, as did Yang, and they helped each other up. "Oof!" Yun grunted as he supported his younger twin. "Feels like you put on two hundred pounds."

"Yep," Yang said through gritted teeth, just as pained. "All muscle, and right now, all dead weight." Slowly, they got up, struggling upwards against the might of the raindrops. One step at a time, they trudged through the city in silence, save for the constant creaking and popping of bones.

Most of the shops they passed were still closed from the typhoon, with the occasional shop open and customers bursting to the seams to try and get out of the rain. The streets were empty, save for a few loose cats and hiding homeless. As they passed the pharmacy, though, the old owner hurried out to meet them. "Why, the Lee Brothers are back! How did everything at your tournament go?" he asked through his bushy moustache, apparently blind to the pair's injuries, each with their arm around the other, and barely able to stand.

The twins each gave him a weak thumbs-up, to which the pharmacist laughed heartily. "Fantastic, fantastic! It's great to have the Twin Dragons back. The whole city depends on the two of you for protection, you know."

As Yang was expecting, Yun turned to give him his old 'I told you so' look. "I told you so," Yun mouthed. "Two."

"Anyway, you boys had better head over to Shoryuken," the old man said, waving them along. "The girls have been waiting for you!"

"Thanks, Mr. Fang," Yun waved back. "Come on," he said to Yang, turning back to the street and sighing. "Let's go get some of Hoimei's lousy fried rice." Despite what his brother said, Yang couldn't help but notice that they were trudging along at a slightly faster pace.

They slowly wound out of sight from the pharmacy and neared the diner. "Yun… Thanks," Yang said quietly. Yun raised an eyebrow. "…For thinking about me." His brother grinned back, understanding what neither one knew how to say. They turned another corner, and the familiar dirty brown lettering of the Shoryuken sign above welcomed them home.

As soon as Yang was close enough to see through the glass window, he heard the door burst open and was thrown inside without warning. Blinking twice in confusion, he found himself seated at the counter with a steaming, foot-tall heap of fried rice in front of him, and a second plate that seemed even taller in front of his equally disoriented brother.

"You guys… What on earth is wrong with you?! What could possibly have taken so long to get back?!" Hoimei yelled, her arms crossed angrily, with Shaomei behind her, trying and failing to hold her sister back. Yun cowered as usual before the ladle Hoimei wielded dangerously like a mace. Yang recognized the faint blush in her cheeks.

"Welcome back, Yang- I mean, I'm sorry." Yang turned from their argument to Shaomei, who shifted her weight shyly. "We- Er, my sister- She's really angry now- Every day for the past week she would wait for you by the window with another plate of rice. I made yours, and I'm sorry, I know it doesn't taste very good-"

Yang interrupted her and took a bite. "It's good. Really good," he smiled, swallowing loudly. Shaomei blushed now, and busied herself straightening out the chopsticks.

"And one more thing-!" Hoimei said loudly, taking a deep breath that allowed her a good look at Yun, then at Yang. "…Hey, what happened to you two?" she asked, quiet with concern, realizing how badly they were hurt. "Street fights wouldn't injure you this badly, and definitely not both of you at once." Hoimei reached over and checked Yun's arm's condition.

Yang took a deep breath. "We got matched up," he said slowly. "And it's my fault we got so hurt- I was being an- Ow!" He felt his legs being kicked under the counter.

"Sorry, Hoimei. My fault entirely," Yun interrupted quickly. "I got caught up in things, getting too wild. I should've been more responsible as the older brother." He gave Yang a quick sideways wink before crying out in pain as Hoimei whacked him with her ladle.

"Of course you should have! What were you thinking? How could you get out of hand on your own brother, you colossal idiot?!" Hoimei yelled, launching into a fresh round of slaps.

_Even taking the blame instead… Still perfect, huh?_ Yang thought to himself, watching his brother whimper in pain as Shaomei rushed to calm her sister down. Each whack seemed louder than the last. _But I think I'll let it slide. Just this once._


End file.
